North Carolina-Greetings-February 12

I am the dad to five adult children. As they were growing up I attempted to remind them they were special and to implore them to learn something new. My goal was to do that daily.

In 2016 my goal is to learn something new daily on the people, places, and things that make North Carolina special.

I realize that in a number of ways I am a person of habit. Some of those habits (the good ones) get interrupted from time to time but there are a number of choices I make each day that are predictable. One of those choices occurs on my commute to work I stop and get a cup of coffee with three creams and three sugars. For about 2 years running I stopped at the same McDonald’s location in Lumberton NC (I-95 Exit 17). I have a friend Carey Read who not only stops there but would order the exact same thing I did. We both ordered a sausage burrito and coffee-forever the cost was $2.66 until the burrito went up in price.

Photo of Carey Read and I one Sunday morning at Carolina Panthers game experimenting with a selfie.

Those trips to get coffee led Carey and I to discover the varied ways people in the North Carolina greet you with different descriptors. For over two months we would text each other in the morning seeing who garnered what words. We got to interact usually with three people at McDonald’s the person taking your order, the person taking your payment, and the person giving you your coffee and burrito.

Carey and I started keeping track earlier in the year on the number of unique southern greetings we would receive each morning. We would text each other to see who won our fictitious daily contest.

On Thursday morning I pulled into the McDonalds drive thru window after about a three week absence and immediately the voice on the other end recognizing my order and stated “Honey where have you been? We have missed you luv“. I told her it was good to be missed. She replied “Sweetie hope to see you tomorrow. I then pulled up in line to make payment to another employee and I was greeted “good morning darling and when she handed me back my change I got a farewell greeting from her “to have a good day precious“. I drove the 30 feet to get my coffee and was handed my order with “here you go baby“.

So in the span of about two minutes I was greeted with a:

Honey Luv Sweetie Darling Precious Baby.

If you are looking for lovey dovey conversation this Valentine’s Day weekend come to North Carolina and order a coffee and a sausage burrito. For under $3.00 it is not a bad self esteem pick me up.